We Need Your Help: New Chapter House Campaign
The Alpha Gamma Chapter urgently needs your help. We are sincerely grateful that you have already generously given to the capital campaign, but we are forced to reach out to you again for assistance.
We have cash, pledges, and anticipated rent from the collegiate chapter that exceed $6 million. However, the final construction costs (a contractor has been selected) will amount to $7.6 million. The shortfall of $1.6 million must be pledged now to immediately break ground and complete construction by next fall.
Angus, we realize this is a daunting request and we need your help in two ways:
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- Review the attached donor list. It is our collective responsibility to contact those brothers who have not made a commitment to the house. Currently, we have roughly a 20% participation rate. An average commitment from the remaining 80% of $10 per week can put us over the top. That’s a little over $40 a month, over five years for a pledge of $2,500.
When you call your brothers, make sure they know that giving can easily be set up to occur on a one-time or monthly basis at either of the following secure websites:
Gifts can also be mailed to this address:
Alpha Gamma Rho University of Florida
Payment Processing
P.O. Box 2187
Columbus, GA 31902-2187
- We are also asking you to consider increasing your gift. This can be done by either mailing a check or increasing the amount of your pledge. Pledge increases can be accomplished by contacting Sarah Smoot ([email protected]) to extend the payment time period or increase the amount of your payments. A 50% increase in the amount already pledged by our 238 committed brothers also meets our goal.
We have been dreaming and clamoring for a new house for nearly 50 years. Ideally, we want everyone contributing according to ability. Fourteen of our brothers contributed over $1,320,000 toward the capital campaign, that’s an average of almost $95,000 per brother. The remainder of the committed brothers account for another $1,225,000.
We have got to finish the job. Failure jeopardizes the very existence of AGR at the University of Florida. We cannot let that happen and we have a clear, though difficult, path to success.
Emails and letters up until this point have not worked to communicate the need and urgency of our project. We can succeed but it will take a strong effort from each of you. Let’s snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. We’ve all worked too hard and given too much to delay further. It is do or die. Let’s band together and push this ball into the end zone.
Remember, call your brothers and convince them to get off the fence and commit to a better future. Second, consider doubling down on your own commitment.
If you have questions, contact any of the following campaign members:
Bernie Lester ’58: [email protected]
Ed Smoak ’69: [email protected]
Tim Garman ’85: [email protected]
Peter Chaires ’87: [email protected]
Jeff Sumner ’90: [email protected]
Angus Williams ’90: [email protected]
Bernie LeFils ’07: [email protected]
Mark Mangen ’12: [email protected]
Thank you for your continued support of Alpha Gamma.
Loyally,
Peter Chaires ’87
House Association President
[email protected]
